East European Jews in Germany Hold Conference: Will Continue to Fight Till They Get Equal Rights in

The past year was a particularly hard one, the elections to the Federation of Prussian Jewish Communities and to the Berlin Jewish Community having been a severe trial of strength, says the report presented to the Sixth Conference of the Federation of Organisations of East European Jews in Germany, just opened at Hanover, with delegates present from Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Hanover, Mayence, Munich, Stuttgart, Brunswick, and many other places.

The Federation emerged successfully from the test, however, the report presented by Herr Fett on behalf of the Presidium goes on. The Federation had an opportunity during the year, he said, to demonstrate that the East European Jews are a not inestimable cultural factor in Jewish life in Germany.

The Federation had also grown during the year, both in numbers and influence, and also contribution, he said.

In the Rhineland and Westphalia, the Federation now comprises about 90 per cent. of all the East European Jews living in the Rhineland. In spite of the economic distress, the local groups had raised 800,000 Marks during the year. These funds were used for social, humanitarian, cultural and religious purposes.

One of the most important points in the programme of the Federation, Herr Fett declared, is the fight which it is conducting to obtain equal rights for the East European Jews in the Jewish Communities in Germany. This fight, he said, will go on until the theoretical recognition of our demand for equal rights is granted in actual practice by the great proportion of the Liberal Jews. It is a recognised fact, Herr Fett asserted, that the Jewish Communities stand only to gain from the collaboration of the East European Jews, who act as a reviving element in the life of the Jewish community.